Paris - Day 2

Today, we made our first attempt to head up the Eiffel Tower - totally unsuccessfully. We got there and the place was swarming (and I mean swarming) with tourists. There were lines for each elevator that actually crossed each other because they were so long.

Instead, today we walked through the gardens in front of the tower, walked by Hôtel des Invalides and ended up in Musée Rodin that has a nice sculpture garden as well as a museum. It started to rain while we were in the sculpture garden, but we decided to push on to Musee d'Orsay and grab a quick bite on the way.

It's quite well known that much of Paris shuts down on Sundays - well we got a taste of this after wandering around aimlessly trying to find a reasonable place for lunch (i.e. not €30 pp). It started pouring, so we compromised and ran into a bakery for a baguette and a mini quiche, which would have been a bit better if:

a) we could walk and eat sans the rain or
b)there was somewhere in the bakery to stand and eat our lunch

Given neither A nor B was a feasible option, we went on our way in the rain, crossed the Seine and Jon had the fabulous idea of eating under the bridge which worked out quite well.

Evidently everyone else had the bright idea of going to Musée d'Orsay, so we spent about one hour in the rain waiting to get into the museum, so by the time we got in Jon was in this state:

The museum is in a beautiful old train depot and despite being exhausted, we explored quite a bit.

We focused on impressionists and there was no shortage. Lots of impressive sculpture in the center and surrounding rooms focusing on French masters like Monet, Manet, Gaugin, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gough Seurat. We pretty much struggled through the rooms with pastels as they are so dimly lit, it makes you want to nap! I've always loved Degas, so that was a fun room filled with a combination of his paintings and sculptures of ballerinas.

Of course, again we totally tired ourselves out and we took a great nap before heading out for dinner. Ellen recommended a place on Ile St-Louis (the island at the center of Paris) called L'ilot Vache where we had another great dinner in a really cute neighborhood - cobblestone streets, cute shops, what you think of when you say Paris. One interesting thing about Paris is that it stays light out even longer than it does in London - the sky gets dark at about 10:15. So even though dinner was scheduled for 9pm, we got to enjoy a view of Notre Dame in day light :)